Oath Keepers CPT Journal – Eureka, Montana, November 25, 2014

It’s hard to convey the amount of information and training that the Eureka CPT group has experienced in the past few weeks. I think I should remind Oath Keeper members right here and now that CPT provides almost all of its training classes for free. Friggin’ free! Liberty Movement participants are receiving expert category training in fields ranging from tactical awareness, to emergency and combat medicine, to engineering, to communications etc, and all one needs to do is join Oath Keepers and show up for CPT classes. On top of it all, we are undergoing an advanced level of training, not just the fundamentals (as most tactical shooting classes teach while charging hundreds of dollars, for example), but high grade training making members extremely adaptable to any conceivable situation. When you are dealing with a person involved in the CPT program for months or years, you are dealing with someone reliable in a crisis. Period.

One structural rule which has made the Eureka CPT so adept at moving through various subjects has been the weekly training regiment. I think every CPT in the country should adopt a once a week training schedule in order to optimize their progress, but I do realize this program is still in its infancy and a standardized format is being built according to the success stories of groups around nation. We figure out what works best, and then we move forward.

In Eureka, members are juggling the holiday season as well as hunting season with CPT classes mixed in, but even so, the group has accomplished much.

Just before the “Polar Vortex” hit along with near zero temperatures and snow, Eureka CPT finished the first leg of its tactical shooting regiment with a high intensity ‘Jungle Lane’. Multiple steel and cardboard targets were camouflaged and placed along a wooded deer trail. Members had to carefully traverse the area while seeking and destroying the targets, finding proper cover, etc. Missed targets resulted in a casualty. This was not a pass/fail event, but a learning experience. Our goal is to make members as ready as possible for when a real emergency strikes rather than expect immediate perfection. Some high cost tactical schools have a tendency to only care about how their students make them look rather than the progress of the students themselves, and they could learn much from the CPT model.

The jungle lane training was invaluable. Being forced to traverse uneven ground with obstacles and underbrush while looking for hidden enemy targets rather than standing them in an open range gave a close sense of realism. People who only train at the range might find themselves overwhelmed when entering into the close quarters of wooded areas where visibility is minimal. Another important issue was the ineffectiveness of .223 caliber rifles against any kind of cover and even some concealment. AR rounds bounce off tree limbs and bushes giving a negative return on accuracy. After seeing this in jungle lane training, we are recommending that any CPT group living in densely forested areas switch to and standardize the much more effective AK round, or the 7.62 NATO.

With rifle training finished (for now), Eureka CPT has moved on to combat and emergency medicine. The first class dealt with tourniquet applications (even with eyes closed), as well as combat carry techniques for transporting casualties out of a fight. Our CPT has at least three members professionally trained in the medical field, and even they learned much from these classes. The medical institution is so compartmentalized that many EMT’s, nurses, and even doctors are not exposed to certain elements of combat medicine. Our purpose is to round out their knowledge, making them far more independent and self reliant.

Combat carries were fun, and vital in learning what weight one can transport (lift), and what weight one cannot lift. Testing limits now prepares people far better for the future.

The latest class on combat medicine covered blood stoppage. As a prop, I fired a .308 round through a Christmas sized ham (yes, a perfectly good ham) at about 50 yards (the most common range in which contact is made). One of our resident medical experts placed a plunger and tube into the “wound” and pumped fake blood through it to add realism. We practiced applying Hemostats to the fake artery, Celox application for blood clotting, gauze insertion and packing, as well as how to use the famous “Israeli Bandage”. This presentation ended up being an excellent class, and I would love to do it again for new members in the future. Hands on training is the only way to go.

After blood stoppage, we reviewed some new technologies becoming available in the combat medicine field, then started a preliminary review on Tension Pneumothorax, the second most common cause of death amongst combat casualties. This will be covered in more detail in our next class on response to wounds interfering with the human airway.

By December, I will be teaching a class on the basics of long range shooting and range estimation, and we will also be covering advanced home and ranch defense methods. Our medical team has finished composing their presentation on how you can respond to Ebola within your own community and WITHOUT the “aid” of the thoroughly incompetent CDC and FEMA. This presentation will be recorded on video and sent out to our membership.

The Community Preparedness Team project is truly taking shape and I am excited to be a part of it from such an early stage. Just today, I received information from Stewart Rhodes that Oath Keeper CPT members are on the ground in Ferguson, MO, and providing protection for local businesses. At least two businesses run by owners of Chinese decent, one black business owner, and one white, right in the middle of the riot and looting epicenter. This is not only a testament to the courage of Oath Keepers, but also to the reality that we could not care less about ethnic background when determining who we help. Oath Keepers are also present to keep an eye on the activities of the local police as well as the national guard. Peaceful protestors have as much a right to redress grievances as business owners have a right to the safety of their property.

With the Thanksgiving holiday upon us, we hope for a period of calm, and that more reasonable minds prevail. If not, our CPT members will be there to provide assistance where they can. Ultimately, Ferguson should have its own CPT teams and neighborhood watches. If there is great conflict between towns and suburbs and city police, then those communities should provide their OWN legitimate security with every citizen involved, and remove the rationale that local and federal governments use to assert control where it is not needed or wanted.

Keep training, folks. You never know when you may be called by dangerous circumstances to help your own town or city. The more organized we are now, the more knowledgeable we are, the more confident we are in our abilities, the more we can affect the future of the world around us. Lack of preparation means failure, and in this fight, failure is not an option…

This is Brandon Smith, Oath Keepers Associate Editor and member of the Eureka CPT, signing out.

BELOW: The author had time for a successful hunt in-between CPT training classes. Looking forward to wild venison and much revery for the holidays. When days become daunting and dangerous, it is important to enjoy the small things whenever possible.

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Site Dedication

This site is dedicated to the memory of John William Adams (1925-2006), Marine and Oath Keeper extraordinaire.

John Adams, at the age of 16, lied about his age to join the Marines so he could fight against Imperial Japan in the Pacific. His enlistment date was December 10, 1941, just three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor (see below). As a Marine rifleman, he fought the Japanese from island to island, across the pacific, including at Iwo Jima. We may have good men, but we never had better.

Until his death in 2006, he was a dedicated patriot who still took his oath to defend the Republic deadly serious. May God grant you the courage to do likewise.

Stewart is the founder and Director of Oath Keepers. He served as a U.S. Army paratrooper until disabled in a rough terrain parachuting accident during a night jump.

He is a former firearms instructor and former member of Rep. Ron Paul’s DC staff.

Stewart previously wrote the monthly Enemy at the Gates column for S.W.A.T. Magazine

Stewart graduated from Yale Law School in 2004, where his paper “Solving the Puzzle of Enemy Combatant Status” won Yale’s Miller prize for best paper on the Bill of Rights. He assisted teaching U.S. military history at Yale, was a Yale Research Scholar, and is writing a book on the dangers of applying the laws of war to the American people.